Vikram Joshi (2 February 1977 – 14 April 2018[1]) was an Indian quizzer and quizmaster who won the World Quizzing Championship (WQC) 2014.[2] [3] He was the first winner who wasn't based in England. In the 2013 contest, he stood 9th.
Named after the scientist Vikram Sarabhai, Joshi was born and raised in a scholarly Konkani Saraswat family based in Mumbai. Academically meritorious throughout, he studied Instrumentation Engineering at Vivekanand Education Society's Institute of Technology (VESIT), followed by a master’s in Computer Science Engineering at the University of Virginia. Soon after he worked at Sun Microsystems in Boston before returning to India, where he worked as a creative media professional.
After his WQC win, Joshi appeared in the eighth season of Kaun Banega Crorepati (an Indian television game show based on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?) as one of the experts on the 'Triguni' lifeline[4] (similar to the Three Wise Men lifeline on the US edition)
Joshi had been a quizmaster on several university quizzes, including ones at IIT Bombay,[5] IIT BHU,[6] and IIM Indore.[7]
In 2018, he hosted the first National Elections Quiz conducted by the Election Commission of India.[8] [9]
Joshi was first diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 2011. He died on 14 April 2018.